Director:
Paul Andrew Williams
Principal Cast:
Andy Serkis, Reece Shearsmith, Jennifer Ellison, Steven O'Donnell, Dave Legeno
Screenwriter:
Paul Andrew Williams
Producers:
Ken Marshall, Martin Pope
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The Cottage
(The Cottage)
1 of 3
[COTTA] | 2007 | 90 min | Feature Narrative
Directed by: Paul Andrew Williams
U.K.North American Premiere
Interests: Comedy, Crime, Gangster, HorrorMoods: Absurdist, Chaotic, Eccentric, Harrowing, Macabre, Manic, Outrageous, Quirky, Slapstick, Tense, Violent
Cast & Credits
Program Notes
Peter (Reece Shearsmith of the comedy troupe The League of Gentlemen) is a real wimp. He's got a domineering wife and even a fear of moths. So how'd he end up holding a pottymouthed gangster's daughter (Jennifer Ellison) hostage in an isolated country cottage with his brother, a hardened criminal (Andy Serkis, The Lord of the Rings)? From writer/director Paul Andrew Williams, this horror-comedy is an about-face from his gritty, award-winning debut, the crime thriller London to Brighton. From the beginning, every step of Peter and his brother's simple plan goes wrong. Their head-butting hostage seems to be more trouble than she's worth, her bumbling brother (Steve O'Donnell, Shakespeare in Love), who is in on the scheme, can't even get a decent ski mask, and they certainly hadn't counted on two murderous Chinese gangsters lurking in the woods. When their hostage escapes on a bathroom break, the chase leads them to a seemingly abandoned farmhouse where someone dangerous lurks-and he has an axe, a freezer full of hands, and who knows what in the basement. A slapstick splatter film in the tradition of Sam Raimi's Evil Dead, The Cottage wrings imaginative twists from the usual slice-anddice formula of the genre. Made on a shoestring, Williams' film begins on a claustrophobically small scale, making its transition into gory Grand Guignol all the more unexpected. Shearsmith, turning in the kind of nuanced performance one doesn't usually expect in a horror film, is its bleeding heart and battered soul.
--David KwokFilm Updates
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